Parafilariasis in a Belgian Blue breeding bull in Flanders Parafilariose bij een Belgisch witblauwe dekstier in Vlaanderen

In March 2009 a three-year-old Belgian Blue breeding bull in Western Flanders demonstrated multiple nodules on the withers, shoulders and neck. Some of them were bleeding. The bull had been imported from the south of Belgium in the summer of 2008. Serohaemorrhagic exsudate from one of the nodules was examined under the light microscope and a larva and embryonated egg of Parafilaria bovicola could be identified. On histopathology a eosinophilic dermatitis was present and after serial sectioning an adult female filarid was found in the superficial dermis. The animal was treated with moxidectin and the skin lesions disappeared within a week. This is the first diagnosed case of bovine parafilariasis in Flanders. Nine months later, no additional cases were identified neither on the farm nor on the neighbouring farms.